What are functional foods?

All foods are functional to some extent because all foods provide taste, aroma and nutritive value. However, foods are now being examined intensively for added physiologic benefits, which may reduce chronic disease risk or otherwise optimize health. It is these research efforts that have led to the global interest in the growing food category now recognized as “functional foods.” Functional foods have no universally accepted definition. The concept was first developed in Japan in the 1980s when, faced with escalating health care costs, the Ministry of Health and Welfare initiated a regulatory system to approve certain foods with documented health benefits in hopes of improving the health of the nation’s aging population. These foods, which are eligible to bear a special seal, are now recognized as Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU).³ As of July 2002, nearly 300 food products had been granted FOSHU status in Japandownload disini